Abstract
From the aspect of ecohydrology, a wetland is the discharge area for the groundwater system and supports habitats of high biodiversity. A typical headwater wetland in Chiba, Japan, was chosen to investigate nitrate behavior in the wetland through which the groundwater flowed.
As one of the predominant nitrogen species, nitrate was removed completely from the groundwater in three stages associated with activities of denitrifying bacteria in the aquifer where N2O was produced as an intermediate product and dissolved in the groundwater. It was found that most of the dissolved N2O was transformed to dissolved N2 in the groundwater because strong reduction conditions prevailed in the wetland aquifer. As a result, all nitrate entering the wetland was eventually transformed to nitrogen gas and N2O that was released to atmosphere at the seepage surface toward which the groundwater flowed. Also, the groundwater flow path was the vital channel providing nitrate for the denitrifying bacteria community in the wetland. When the high nitrate of groundwater flowed into the wetland, the microbial denitrifier community extended with DO depletion and the sharp decrease of ORP. The chemoautotrophic denitrification caused a decline of NO3 − and increase of SO4 2− in the groundwater at the same time. The groundwater generated conditions suitable for the microbial community to survive in the aquifer and developed the reduction sequence of DO, nitrate, and sulfate along the pathway in the wetland. Therefore, one of the ecohydrological functions of the headwater wetland should be considered as a transformer between the biogeochemical source and sink for nitrate to maintain the ecosystem services in the watershed.
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Acknowledgments
The author gratefully acknowledges the referees for their time and the favorable comments. The fieldwork and laboratory work would not have been possible without the help of K. Fukumoto, H. Ota, K. Kanno, N. Goto, and Y. Hashimoto.
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Tang, C. (2014). Ecohydrological Assessments on Nitrogen Behavior in the Headwater Wetland. In: Taniguchi, M., Hiyama, T. (eds) Groundwater as a Key for Adaptation to Changing Climate and Society. Global Environmental Studies. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-54968-0_5
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